1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the art of sporting balls thrown or rolled by hand and more particularly to bowling balls.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many games and sports popularly enjoyed by enthusiasts require the use of a hand-held ball which is rolled or thrown. Among these games, one of the more popular is that of bowling. In bowling, one rolls a round ball toward a number of pins, with the object being to knock down as many pins as possible. The player knocking down the most pins obtains the highest score and thereby wins the bowling game.
The bowling ball which is in popular use in this country must meet rigid standards promulgated by the American Bowling Congress. Among these standards is the requirement that the weight of the bowling ball must not exceed sixteen pounds and must not differ more than one ounce from side to side, and must not differ more than three ounces top to bottom. Further, the outside diameter of the bowling ball must be between 8.550 and 8.59 inches.
The bowling ball is commonly drilled to provide a grip for the bowler. Conventional grips include the two hole and three hole grip. A two hole grip accommodates the thumb and middle finger of the bowler while a three hole grip accommodates the thumb, ring finger, and middle finger of the bowler. In a three hole grip, the holes for the ring finger and middle finger may be drilled to a shallow depth (i.e., to the first knuckle) to provide a fingertip grip or more deeply (i.e., to the second knuckle) to provide a conventional grip. Alternately, grips for which the fingers are inserted to intermediate positions between the first and second knuckle are referred to as semi-fingertip grips. The drilling of holes in the ball necessarily removes material from the ball. This creates an unbalanced condition in what would otherwise be a homogeneous bowling ball of constant weight density throughout.
Various methods and apparatuses have been proposed in the prior art to compensate for the weight removed by drilling finger and thumb holes. The majority of prior designs endeavored to statically balance the bowling ball by compensating for the weight removed by the finger and thumb holes. In at least one patent, namely U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,899 to Salvino which is incorporated herein by reference, weight blocks are positioned in the bowling ball to dynamically balance the bowling ball.
A bowling ball that is dynamically unbalanced will wobble as it rolls down the bowling lane. Such a dynamically unbalanced bowling ball will make it more difficult for the bowler to control, and therefore more difficult for him to consistently obtain high scores.
Another impediment to consistent high scoring is the deflection of the bowling ball's path after it impacts the first bowling pin. In the case of an accurately thrown bowling ball, the bowling ball will impact the pocket (i.e., the number 1 and number 3 Pins for a right-handed bowler and number 1 and number 2 for a left-handed bowler) and begin crashing into secondary and tertiary rows of pins. It is advantageous for the bowling ball to deflect as little as possible from these primary and secondary impacts so that the ball will continue to follow its intended arc.
It is a general object of this invention to provide a bowling ball which includes weight on the spin axis of the bowling ball having certain properties and positions relative to the spin axis so that the stability of the ball as it spins down the lane, as well as the arc of the ball's trajectory, are improved to provide consistently high scores for the skilled bowler.